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Organizing - March 2017

According to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) data analysis complied by Bloomberg BNA, unions prevailed in 72 percent of representation elections in 2016. Some union opponents argue that this data reflects the fact that recent Board decisions and rules have made it easier for unions to organize workers.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I) spoke at a pro-union rally near Nissan Motor Co.'s Canton, Miss. plant. Actor Danny Glover and national NAACP President Cornell Brooks also attended. Participants marched two miles to the Nissan plant to deliver a letter to the company demanding that employees be given the opportunity to vote on union representation in order to address wages, safe working conditions, and job security. The United Auto Workers (UAW) has been working for more than a decade to organize workers at Nissan’s Canton plant.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) withdrew its petition to represent Duke University graduate students after election results were inconclusive.

Non-tenured faculty at New York City’s Fordham University filed a petition seeking representation by the SEIU. The SEIU is still determining which academic departments will be included in the final prospective bargaining unit, but the number of faculty members covered could reach 900.

A group of personal fitness trainers at Gold’s Gym in Los Angeles held a first-of-its-kind representation election. With 18 eligible voters, the trainers voted 7-6 against representation by the Workers United.

Approximately 59 percent of voting Norwegian Air Shuttle U.S.-based flight attendants elected to join the Association of Flight Attendants, a move which follows the formation of an independent union last August. The 450-member unit will join the other 50,000 U.S. flight attendants represented by the AFA, part of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) plans to challenge inconclusive results of a representative election at Cornell University. More than 1,800 graduate research and teaching assistants voted in the representation election. The AFT is challenging the results based on allegations that the university interfered by promising lower health care costs for workers just days before the election, and threatening to cut graduate workers if the union was elected.

The Palace Station Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas agreed to recognize its culinary and bartender workers’ unions as part of the settlement of unfair labor practice charges. Union affiliates of UNITE HERE had alleged that the hotel interfered with election results after narrowly losing an election last October.